What boat started it for you?

Landed on Anglesey in 84, now too old to make a living falling off Motorcycles so needed summatt with an engine and sumatt to share with swmbo and nippers
Plus we right next to the Menai Strait
No brainer!
No idea either, nearly wiped out the Family on more that one occasion
1. 16'5 Cuddy Dory uknown make
2. 20ft Colvic Seaskate Fast Angler
3 Wooden 35ft Lifeboat of uknown 'Pedigree'
I use pedigree rather lightly
4. Channel Island 22
5. Nimbus 27
Now RIBS for Trips and Training
If the Peeps who we train now could see back to 84
They wouldn't come anywhere near Us!
;)
 
Kawasaki said:
Landed on Anglesey in 84, now too old to make a living falling off Motorcycles so needed summatt with an engine and sumatt to share with swmbo and nippers
Plus we right next to the Menai Strait
No brainer!
No idea either, nearly wiped out the Family on more that one occasion
1. 16'5 Cuddy Dory uknown make
2. 20ft Colvic Seaskate Fast Angler
3 Wooden 35ft Lifeboat of uknown 'Pedigree'
I use pedigree rather lightly
4. Channel Island 22
5. Nimbus 27
Now RIBS for Trips and Training
If the Peeps who we train now could see back to 84
They wouldn't come anywhere near Us!
;)
Click to expand...

Ha, another former CI22 owner. I had mine, Stalwart, for about 9 years. We regularly went out with 4 divers and all the equipment needed for 2 dives each and then trundled back with 50 odd dozen scallops plus assorted lobster, crab and flatfish. They were good days. It was all made much easier when I moved up to the CI 32, also meant solo cross channel trips and many more nights aboard, again, great days. Funnily enough the chap I now share an Aquastar 27 with almost bought my old CI22 about 5 years after I'd sold her. It's a small world. I loved both my CIs, great boats.
 
When on Holiday in Croatia in y 2000, we saw a family having fun with a Rib, and that made me think, “that kind of pleasure can’t be too expensive”
A month later we had our first boat;
a old 4.7m Zodiac, Futura mark III – Evinrude 50HP.
After 3 seasons and lots of fun, we started looking for a real boat,
that had to be:
- Trailable
- Inboard engine / big swim platform
- Practical for family use and for diving, and occasional overnight
I liked the "sportfisher" style
2004 bought our first real boat, Faeton 630 – V6 180Hp Mercruiser
2007 upgraded to Faeton 730-V6 210Hp Mercruiser
2008 upgrade to Karnic 2660 2 x VP D3 190Hp
We still have and enjoy the Karnic,

In 2011 we wanted more of the same, but capable of sleeping for us with our family or guests
Blue Angel is a 1991 Canados 70s 2 x 1100Hp.

The addiction has never been cut down,
I’m very fortunate that swmbo is part of this, and enjoy’s this aswell
 
longjohnsilver said:
Ha, another former CI22 owner. I had mine, Stalwart, for about 9 years. We regularly went out with 4 divers and all the equipment needed for 2 dives each and then trundled back with 50 odd dozen scallops plus assorted lobster, crab and flatfish. They were good days. It was all made much easier when I moved up to the CI 32, also meant solo cross channel trips and many more nights aboard, again, great days. Funnily enough the chap I now share an Aquastar 27 with almost bought my old CI22 about 5 years after I'd sold her. It's a small world. I loved both my CIs, great boats.
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Likewise Long John
Went everywhere in the CI 22, IOM Ireland Scotland all over the Irish Sea
Better than a Project when I bought Her but not far off
Fettled Her from Stem to Stern
She had the Mermaid 140 T, I eventually got Her to perform to the Manufacturer's claim of 19.65 knots!
Then hankered after a 32 as you do
Put Her on the Market on a Saturday sold her next day
Then chatting to the Guy on the next berth
Bought His Nimbus 27!
Sadly the Channel Island has been rotting ashore for 7 years or more
Never winterised, never started, been broken into
Sad
 
My first boating experience was around 1970 (I was 25) when working for Southern TV in Southampton. We had a converted MTB which was used as an outside broadcast unit called Southener. I was building & installing the comms between the three cameras & the rest of the production team. We used to bring it to a wharf near the studios by the original Northam Bridge on the Itchen during the day & back to its swinging mooring on the Hamble when work was finished. At about 70’ it was interesting turning in the river to pick up a buoy with a single diesel engine.

At the time there were several unusual shaped power boats on some other moorings in the Hamble which the skipper described as “boxy boats from the Far East”. Little did I know these were the early wooden Grand Banks. The seed was sown without my realising.

The MTB had a pair of Gas Turbines (Olympus I think) which required a team of engineers to be called in whenever we used them. I have just one memory of flying down the Solent hanging on for grim death! The noise was incredible. I believe she could do around 34kts. She was used for Cowes week & a few other broadcasts.

southern4.jpg

We used to crane the equipment in at the wharf when needed. I always worried when the VTR machine (2” Ampex) went in as it was a heck of a heavy lump!

It was whilst on an Isle of Wight Holiday sitting watching the boats in Yarmouth harbour in 1979 that the penny dropped. In 1980 we rang round the brokers looking for advice etc & received just about no interest or returned calls except for one. That was Ian Hardy from Nautica Marine in Hamble, lovely people, who were the sole importers of Grand Banks. Clearly meant to be lol!

We chartered a GB32 for a weekend on the East Coast then bought a used wood GB32 via. Ian. Kept her at Buckler's Hard till 1986. Then back to Ian to find a used wood GB42, which we bought from Howth in Ireland in 1987. Still got her.

By the way for those interested whilst looking for Southerner I came across the first colour outside broadcast unit in the ITV network which we built at Southern TV. I worked on the sound & comms (no thats not me).

bus2.jpg
 
well like a few others my parents have boats. Their first "big" boat came along a year after I did, 1971 they bought a Hillyard 9 tonner, kept a Mercury when Robin Knox-Johnson owned it. Every weekend, holiday etc etc was on board going somewhere in whatever boat he had at the time, always a sailing boat .. Dad's now entering his 84th year and still has a boat at Mercury..

I am happiest when on the water, I feel truly at home on a boat. My first "big" boat was a J24, great fun but I bought it when I was at Uni so had little time to use it. Years later bought a little Fletcher Arrowsprint on a total whim, that lead to a few other odds and ends and then to a little Merry Fisher, then the Hardy and now embarking on something else.

Secret to happy boat ownership is having a willing partner, SWMBO is happiest reading a book with a glass of wine sitting in Yarmouth... a very simple situation I am always happy to treat her to!
 
Firefly625 said:
Secret to happy boat ownership is having a willing partner
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+1.
In fact, I must admit that what started it all for us was a boat which actually SWMBO decided to buy.
It was a quarter of a century ago (blimey, doesn't time fly?), we were walking along a small harbour in Lake Como and saw a 15' (or so, can't even remember exactly) Crestliner for sale.
She didn't look very appealing TBH, but she had a Merc o/b which looked brand new, and a phone call confirmed that we could get it for not much more than a song.
That was more than enough for SWMBO to decide that we couldn't miss such fantastic opportunity...
Unfortunately, it didn't take long to realize that the hull was even less solid than she already looked, to the point that one day we just made it back to the marina, after a trip to the northern tip of the lake: a bucket being the only bilge pump, we arrived with pretty wet feet!
Here is swmbo looking at the several patches the hull bottom required, fearing that I was actually right in thinking that her idea was not so brilliant.
Anyway, we soon traded in the old Crestliner for a brand new Airon Marine, and ...the rest is history!
Crestliner.jpg
 
I was probably doomed from the outset - born under Pisces star sign in a fishing port... However, Mother was paranoid about water and thus we were forbidden from anything related to the sea! As a severe Asthmatic during childhood, every time I had a swimming lesson at school I'd be dragged out unable to breathe so this perhaps made her even more paranoid. However the force is strong and I was inevitably drawn to the water - once a teenager, tourist trips in Torbay, river cruises on the Dart and even a never repeated shift on a trawler in a F7/8 followed when I was around 19! None of which put me off or quelled the passion for the sea.

I never really seriously contemplated buying a boat as I'd always perceived it as too expensive and being a non swimmer, it seemed like a bad idea. A deep seated yearning and more than a bit of encouragement from SWMBO changed that however, and I bought a 14' Fletcher project from a friend in 2010 (and then another and another... :rolleyes:) As another friend rightly pointed out, he doubted that many pilots could actually fly either, so swimming ability was probably irrelevant and lack of would likely produce a greater degree of caution! Thus I'm still a relative 'Newbie' and a steep learning curve has followed, but it really does feel like the bit of life that was missing!
 
When I was 6 months old my Mum and Dad paid £80 for a Yeoman Cougar 16' boat - I've seen one and I'd think it too small for a dayboat, but they managed to weekend and even a week away with me and my 5yr old sister on a canal.

As I grew, they found that I couldn't fit in my berth any more (Head in toilet compartment, feet under sink..... ) so sold it and bought a Buckingham 20.

We had that boat for all my childhood - selling it when I was around 17.

Most of my happiest childhood memories were of weekends on that boat, and a 2 week holiday on the Norfolk Broads on it.

When Dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer in August 2012 we decided to take a trip back on that same canal we did all through my childhood.

We hired a boat, and had a wonderful day out in the Spring of 2014.

Dad passed away on Tuesday, and whilst it's hard, I look back at all the times on that boat, and what wonderful memories it's given me.

My first boat was a 10' inflatable.

Then I got a Shetland 535
Then a Maxum 1700
Then a Rinker 260V
Then a Fairline Weekend 21

Now boatless as my own finances aren't what they could be, but it's my aim to sort that out and get a small cheap boat this year or next to get back into it - when I pass on I'd like our kids to also have such great memories.
 
ontheplane said:
When I was 6 months old my Mum and Dad paid £80 for a Yeoman Cougar 16' boat - I've seen one and I'd think it too small for a dayboat, but they managed to weekend and even a week away with me and my 5yr old sister on a canal.

As I grew, they found that I couldn't fit in my berth any more (Head in toilet compartment, feet under sink..... ) so sold it and bought a Buckingham 20.

We had that boat for all my childhood - selling it when I was around 17.

Most of my happiest childhood memories were of weekends on that boat, and a 2 week holiday on the Norfolk Broads on it.

When Dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer in August 2012 we decided to take a trip back on that same canal we did all through my childhood.

We hired a boat, and had a wonderful day out in the Spring of 2014.

Dad passed away on Tuesday, and whilst it's hard, I look back at all the times on that boat, and what wonderful memories it's given me.

My first boat was a 10' inflatable.

Then I got a Shetland 535
Then a Maxum 1700
Then a Rinker 260V
Then a Fairline Weekend 21

Now boatless as my own finances aren't what they could be, but it's my aim to sort that out and get a small cheap boat this year or next to get back into it - when I pass on I'd like our kids to also have such great memories.
Click to expand...
Good to be able to recapture those memories and create new ones for your children.

Condolences on your Dad's passing.
 
Like most of the forum, the boat concept would have been "brewing" away at the back of our minds for many years.

It all came with a rush for me after sitting beside a local, iconic sandy beach one evening just after dark many years ago, a very warm humid night, VW campervan and nice GF, thinking life couldn't get much better than this...
Then out of the darkness the whirring of engines and the navigation lights of what turned out to be a small Bertram approaching the beach from seaward, dropping off passengers on the beach in front of us, returning to its mooring, then owner dinghying ashore. Now that could work, thought I.

After many different types and sizes of boats over the years, still playing with our little Bertram and loving it :)
 
Back when I was in my early teens, I used to work part time with a local neighbourhood builder. He was a carpenter/joiner by trade and very skilled and one day, out of the blue, he arrived home with a 16' fibreglass hull, of unknown origin, with, I think, a 25hp Mercury outboard on the back.

He built a cabin on it and rigged up a steering wheel although someone had to man the throttle on the motor. I remember so many days out on that boat, loaded to the hilt with half the neighbourhood and not a lifejacket between us! Fishing out of Howth on Dublin Bay, going over to Irelands' Eye where we'd beach the boat and cook the mackerel that we'd caught just a short while beforehand.

Anyway, I found my sea legs and could never get the smell of salt and seaweed out of my nostrils and now, many years later, I am nearing the completion of my Microplus resto. Two things that sat at the top of my bucket list were, 1. Get a little boat and 2. Restore an old car. The MG is waiting in the wings.

But when I think of how we set out to sea, totally unprepared, with absolutely nothing in the way of safety equipment, tools, spares, knowledge of the weather, it was crazy. Armed with this knowledge, I am awaiting delivery of my lifejackets, running lights, vhf radio, etc. etc. so the trips out thought me the value of owning a boat along with the obligations.
 
After years of hiring boats on the Broads we finally took the plunge in 2008 and bought our own boat.

We had intended to buy a brand new Viking 20 but somehow ended up with this instead.

DSCF4742.jpg


We still own her almost 7 years on. So she can't be all that bad :)
 
Tips & Tricks: Things to consider when your boat won’t start

No matter how many times you do something, it is inevitable that occasionally something isn’t going to go exactly according to plan. Over the past six months I’ve skippered two research vessels countless times. To this day, there are still times when I have issues; more often than not the problem doesn’t lie with the vessel, but with a few simple things I’ve forgotten to check. Here are a few tips for what to look for when your boat doesn’t start!

1. Checking the fuel
It might sound simple – but checking the fuel to make sure that there’s enough is one of the first things to consider. There’s nothing more embarrassing than scratching your head to try and work out what’s wrong, only to realize you’re out of fuel research vesselWhen leaving the harbour, always make sure the fuel tanks are filled and that you have back up. Being lost at sea without any fuel is the start of many horror stories…

2. The Kill Switch
Make sure the kill switch is in! Most powerboats have a kill switch; it’s a clip that kills the engine when it’s pulled out. The idea behind it is that you attach the other end to yourself so should you fall overboard, the boat will stop moving. However, it needs to be attached in the first place or the engines won’t start!

3. Neutral Gears
Check that the engines are in neutral. Just like a car, outboard engines won’t start if they’re in gear. It’s a simple thing - but easy to overlook and has got me in trouble on more than one occasion.The previous three tips are simple oversights that may occur. However, if the boat still doesn’t start after checking these then there is obviously another issue. Without going into too much detail, there are three components of the outboard engine system that might be causing the issue.

4. Electrical system
The electrical system – this provides the power to the engines to get them running. If nothing happens when you turn the key, the problem might lie with the electrical system. Check the battery, connections at the battery as well as the connections at the engine. If all of these are working it may be faulty cables or worn out spark plugs.

5. Air/Fuel System
The air/fuel system – this is how the fuel is delivered to the engine. If the engine is turning over when the key is turned but not starting, it’s probably a problem with this component. Check that the primer bulb (bulb you squeeze to inject fuel to the system) is hard, check that there are no cracks in the fuel lines and that there’s no water in the fuel filter.

6. Mechanical Component
The final component of the system is the mechanical component. Finding problems with this component is the most difficult, unless you have engineering experience or a good working knowledge of outboard engines.
 
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